Sir Richard Douglas Denman, 1st Baronet, was born in 1876. He attended Balliol College, Oxford. In 1905 he became official Private Secretary to the Postmaster General, Sydney Buxton, and later became his Parliamentary Private Secretary when Buxton was President of the Board of Trade, 1910. Denman was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal for Carlisle in 1910 and in 1914, with the outbreak of World War One, he joined the Union of Democratic Control. In his early career he was also a member of the Committee of Wage-Earning Children, 1912. Denman stepped down from Parliament and pursued a career in local government where he stood, unsuccessfully, as a Liberal candidate for some elections. In 1924, Denman switched parties and joined Labour. He then returned to Westminster in 1929 as Labour MP for Leeds Central Division. In the 1931 Labour Party split over support of the National Government - he joined the National Labour Party, and was re-elected when he stood again for Leeds Central at the 1931 and 1935 General Elections. Denman also served as Chairman of the National Labour Organisation for a period. He resided at Staffield Hall, Cumbria with his second wife, May Spencer, and their family. Denman retired due to ill health in 1945 and died in 1957.